As a follow-up to his earlier essay on the state of the union published in Esquire in 1975, Vidal offers this piece to clarify and expand on some of his earlier ideas. Everyone in the United States—politicians, corporations, generals—works for "the Bank" or the owners of the country, "the gilded 4.4 percent who own most of the United States and owns 27 percent of the country's real estate, 60 percent of all corporate stock." Indeed, Vidal calls the Bank "the Cosa Nostra of the 4.4 percent. The United States government is the Cosa Nostra of the Bank."

Vidal says there have been three republics in America, but a fourth is needed for the union to survive. The first republic ("a loose confederation of 13 autonomous states") began...